SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — In Central New York, an unusually warm winter has led to an early start of the maple syrup season.
At Heiberg Memorial Forest in Tully the tapping of trees and boiling of sap began in the first week of January, making this the second earliest start behind the 2018 season.
“We’re tapping middle of January, end of January; it used to be unheard of up here,” says Jill Rahn, Forest Resource Analyst at Heiberg Memorial Forest, “we used to not tap until around Valentine’s Day.”
This shift is indicative of a broader trend of warmer winters in the region. Since 2003, the average temperature during winter has risen by close to 10 degrees.
Temperature fluctuation between cold nights and warm mornings creates pressure inside the tree which pushes the sap out.
Warm weather early in the new year means that trees like those in the 23-acre sugar bush at the forest are tapped much sooner.
“We used to get this kind of flow second week of March” says Mark Appleby, Property Manager at Heiberg Memorial Forest, “I’ve noticed probably over the last six years that we’ve been moving that [earlier and earlier].”
If warmer weather continues trees will stop being tapped in two weeks, but if it gets cold again the harvest could be extended until the end of March.
“These warmer temperatures are really just tricky to predict as a maple producer because once the trees start to bud out, we lose that sweet sap,” says Rahn.
Despite a rushed start to the season the final product tastes anything but that.